1/10/08 The day of our train journey to Agra. We arrived at New Delhi station in good time, because we had decided to book our tickets from Agra to Calcutta while we were here. It turns out that there's only one train that leaves from Agra on the right day, and that's booked up, so we're having to get a train from a place called Tunla instead, which is an hour and a half away from Agra. Again, we're going to have to go in non air-conditioned sleeper class, the cheapest sort.

New Delhi station has 16 platforms, but we managed to find the right one almost straight away. I was amazed at how different the whole place is from any rail station in England. For a start, under the roof of the massive entrance there are hundreds of people sitting down or lying asleep, some looking as if they live there permanently. A recorded voice announces delays to trains literally every two minutes or so (maybe this bit isn't so different to England...), the platforms are covered in food, drink and book stands, beggars, hawkers and stray dogs roam, and stacks of goods like massive bags of rice lie piled up all over the platforms. The journey itself was also very different; chai-wallahs (Indian tea-sellers) pass up and down inside the train every five minutes, bearing their metal tea-canisters and plastic cups and calling out "chaichaichai...chaichaichai...' in a distinctive droning type of voice, other hawkers come past offering such things as cloths, snacks, combs, watches, toothbrushes and pillows, and once a man with no hands passed through, begging.

The train didn't leave until an hour and a quarter after it was supposed to, and then when we did get going we randomly stopped a few times throughout the journey for up to 45 minutes each. We were supposed to arrive at Agra at 6.30 pm, but we didn't actually arrive until 10 pm! It was unbearably hot as well (only one of the fans worked properly, and only rarely did the train go fast enough for a proper breeze to circulate, despite being called the 'Andaman Express'), I was continuously stared at, and for the last 2 hours I was convinced that we had gone past our stop, and was worrying that we'd end up on the other side of the country! To say I was relieved when we pulled in at Agra was an understatement.

We got an auto rickshaw to the first choice backpacking place on our list, Hotel Sheela, but they only had a room available for one night, so as we were knackered we took it and decided to look for other places the next day.

2/10/08 After some breakfast we checked out of Sheela's and walked further into Taj Ganj (our neighbourhood) to find somewhere to stay for the rest of our time here. Luckily we managed to get a room in the next place on our list, Shah Jahan Hotel. (Equivalent of about 3 pounds 10 each per night, but a pretty decent place.) The Taj Mahal is only about 200m away! - and the rooftop restaurant in our hostel has a view of it. It's the first day of Eid today, so a public holiday, and there's a bit of a street carnival on with lots of roadside stalls, music coming out of loudspeakers, a couple of rides for children, and hundreds of Indian tourists here for the festival and the Taj Mahal (only a couple of Western tourists apart from us.) We went for a walk around some of the outside walls of the Taj, and about 3 lines of untethered cows and a few camels pulling carts went past us. It's still stiflingly hot, and like in Delhi when we go outside or anywhere inside that isn't air conditioned, we're literally dripping with sweat within about 30 seconds. It's as dusty as it is in Delhi too. We didn't do much today apart from look around and chill out, as we decided to go to Agra Fort tomorrow and the Taj Mahal on Saturday.

3/10/08 Agra Fort is absolutely amazing! It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort we saw in Delhi. It's the largest and most important fort in India, and although a brick fort existed on the site from at least 1080 AD, the ruins were rebuilt in red sandstone by the 16th century Mughal Emperor Akbar, and further buildings were added inside the fort by his grandson Shah Jahan (made in white marble with inlaid gold and semi-precious stones.) It was basically an entire estate of palaces, mosques, gardens, pavilions, halls for public and private audiences, and places including living quarters for the emperor's wives and mistresses, a place where his musicians played, and his private work area, all inside massive ramparts including towers as well as walls. We walked round everywhere that wasn't closed off due to military occupation. There were a few more Western tourists at Agra Fort than there were at the fort in Delhi, but I felt even more like a celebrity than I did then - we had lots of groups of Indian young men and teenage boys, and a couple of families, come up to us and ask if they could take photos of firstly Dave and I together, and then just me with their friends standing next to me - as a group and one by one in turn. They didn't want ones of just Dave for some reason. I joked to Dave that I ought to start charging, and then I'd have enough for us to live on for the next week! I may be imagining it, but I didn't notice any of the other Western girls have groups of men and boys come up and get them to have photos taken with them. Yet it's not as if I was skimpily dressed or anything, because I was wearing light khaki canvassy trousers and a non-clingy black t-shirt. A bit of a mystery really. As the sun went down, a swarm of monkeys ran along the outer walls, silhouetted against the sky, and then came down right past us. We both got lots of pictures of the fort, and Dave got ones of the monkeys as well.

We got our first ride in a cycle rickshaw on the way back, one each in fact. They stopped at a bazaar on the way back because they got commission for doing so, but they let us in on this scam and we didn't buy anything. Dave had a go riding his rickshaw, whilst his driver clung onto him for dear life from behind - the sight of this amused my driver, myself and several passers by. I have a photo of this as evidence! 4/10/08 We didn't go to the Taj today after all, because we thought it was going to be cloudy and rainy. 5/10/08 We were awake from about 5.30, when the muezzin's call woke us up (there's a mosque directly behind our window, and he calls over loudspeaker into the bargain.) Sunrise was at about 6.15am and we were there 15 minutes before, but there was already a queue outside the gate! There was one queue for Indian nationals, because they only have to pay Rs20 to get in, and another for everyone else, who has to pay Rs750 each. It's well worth it though obviously!
When you walk through the west gate entrance, you enter a red sandstone forecourt, and within this you turn left and you get to the original entrance which is a huge decorated arch. When you walk through this, you get your first view of the Taj Mahal itself, because they are aligned exactly opposite each other. Gardens and waterways, laid out in Islamic design, lie between the two. The Taj Mahal itself is the tomb built by the Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan out of romantic love for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal, and was finished in 1653.
Every part of the architectural design is perfectly symmetrical, and when bathed in the early morning sunlight, to me it seemed to rise up out of its own accord from the gardens surrounding it. The rays catching the white marble of the building gave it a delicate look, and made it appear deceptively small; only the sight of the people standing on the base of the mausoleum gave it a sense of scale. To be honest I don't think the photos we took of it from the gateway opposite gave it justice, for the intricate details of the carving and inlaid patterns of precious stone don't become visible in full until you are close up. We walked down the left centre pathway, next to symmetrically-lined ornamental trees and the centre waterway (which is the only one filled nowadays, and then only for special occasions - fortunately for us it was filled today, so they must have done it for Eid.) Since this waterway was filled, I managed to get a couple of photos of the reflection of the Taj in the water, which is really famous apparently.
The base of the Taj is a square marble platform, and you have to take off your shoes before you can climb the stairs up to it. First of all we walked around the mausoleum, getting some photos from each side, and then we went inside. Photography isn't allowed inside unfortunately, otherwise I would have taken photos of the amazing decorative work there. The tomb of Shah Jahan, laid after his death next to that of Mumtaz Mahal, is the only unsymmetrical thing in the entire Taj Mahal. On one side of the marble mausoleum is a red sandstone domed mosque, and on the other side is a replica of it - placed there for the purpose of symmetry.
When we finally went back down, we walked round the edges of the walls, by the sides of the gardens. The gardens look very green and lush, but people aren't allowed on the lawns! The only thing that mars the whole experience is that there's litter in some of the empty waterways and the edges of some parts of the gardens. We wandered round the sandstone forecourt as well, before going in to see the Taj museum, which is in the western wall of the enclosure. This has some fascinating exhibits - a few 17th century swords, scimitars and sabres, gold and silver coins minted at the time of Shah Jahan, 17th century original manuscripts with court calligraphy on, original delicate paper drawings and paintings of Shah Jahan variously watching an elephant fight, riding a horse, sitting in his golden throne etc., and pictures and architectural plans of the Taj from different centuries.
We didn't end up staying all day, because stupidly we hadn't brought water inside with us and the tickets only allow one entry, so after the museum we walked through the gardens and out of the opposite gate to the one we'd entered by, and went to quench our thirst and have some slightly early lunch at the restaurant at Hotel Sheela. We went back to our place after that and rested, before reading and chilling until it was time for dinner. 6/10/08 Neither of us felt very well this morning - Dave has got a chesty cough/chill and I was feeling a bit sick. We lay in for a long time, not having the energy to move let alone get up. Just then I heard music in the street get really loud, and the sound of a drum beating, so I had a look out of the window - a procession was going by! I threw on my clothes and rushed upstairs onto the roof with my camera, but I was too late to get any photos. As I made my way down I felt a lot better, and when I got back to our room Dave said he was feeling a bit better as well. We didn't do much today, but we did have some food at Sheela's and while we were there we booked a taxi to take us to Tunla tomorrow evening. On the way there, the procession passed by again, so I did manage to get a couple of photos. I think it must have been for the end of Eid. Lots of cows and dogs in the road as usual, and a couple of goats.